As 2011 comes to a close, I look toward the future and ask my friends, followers and colleagues about their #SocialMediaWish for 2012. Their responses were eclectic; a virtual mixed bag of social media requests, covering everything from personal goals to pleas for more engagement from businesses and each in 140 characters or less. Take a look at these 44 social media wishes for 2012 and see if any resonate with you.

General Wishes

1. @MikeFraietta Avatars with human faces.
2. @MartijnLinssen For less dynamics in existing Twitter clients and the API offered by Twitter, and more in new Twitter clients and new API service providers.
3. @rhappe A better UX for controlling your privacy on Facebook (#TooEasy)
4. @LinkedMedia #SocialMediaWish mine is 4 Facebook to step up to plate and put a real team of ppl in place for cust/serv for parents. #gnarly
5. @phillymac  Google+ integration into Tweetdeck.
6. @joshhinds I wish twitter would let us more easily delete DM’s (i.e. in bulk) so I could actually use DM’s rather then avoid it because all the spam.
7. @celivingston  One tool to rule them all. Especially from a CM perspective.
8. @kirstenwright I wish for an end to spammers and link hackers.
9. @swhitley I want to see the end of #TeamFollowBack.
10. @PreppyDude ohhh! My #socialmediawish is for facebook to add an edit button and for Twitter to get it’s head out of it’s {bleep} re: spam
11. @richpalmer @PreppyDude @Dayngr I’ll second that #socialmediawish.
12. @AdamLeithP I have one wish, an “anonymous ‘like’ button for Facebook. No one can see who has liked it. An “up vote” if you will. #facebook
13. @MeganCynaumon An answer for #socialmedia ROI!
14. @paulswansen that somehow it will all make sense.
15. @ChrisFHFX Voice to tweet, please.
16. @AgustinaP To win my boss a Webby.
17. @dimensionmedia To use my network to sell out #wcmia in Feb.
18. @MelanieAThomp To have time to blog daily.
19. @vargasl My 2012 #SocialMediaWish is that every organization have a social media policy that makes sense to workforce and cmty.
20. @DollarVersity I wish these companies would bring something dramatically new/different to the table rather than a few subtle changes to old product
21. @KGoetterman My 2012 #SM wish would be that companies approach it’s #SM with caution, thought and purpose as they do with all medias they choose.
22. @evanhamilton Less focus on the next shiny thing and more on stepping up our game on existing networks.

Social Media Engagement Wishes

23. @PRntheCity RT’s for all!
24. @christinelarade Continued engagement by large companies.
25. @jo_cheevers for brands I follow to actually respond when I ask them something through #SM #SocialMediaWish
26. @jasonkonopinski An end to performing. More being real.
27. @Tojosan a social network w/more actual networking.
28. @TheTinyJEWELBox I wish for folks NOT to forget that social media is SOCIAL!! Engage and interact.
29. @imgarysmith for people to interact with me.
30. @zodot Since it’s almost my 1 yr twitterversary, my wish is to make more amazing connections. I’ve “met” so many fantastic ppl this year.
31. @PeggyDolane More great conversations!
32. @raveonstudio  I wish more people would use it.
33. @Julie_Meredith Yes! I’d love for more #Finserv companies to get on the ball with #SM! No excuses!
34. @chrisgalton More CEO’s to support Social Media monitoring & engagement activity within their businesses. It’s #2012 not #1912

Social Media Related Jobs

35. @jimmiebjr A social media job.
36. @SkiGarmisch Yes! Me too please. RT @jimmiebjr: A social media job.
37. @Sean_OHanlon I plan to be the Analyst/Commentator the media turns to for all things. #Algae #Biomass & #Biofuels
38. @brodigan A job doing social media.

Wishes for Social Media Good

39. @shashib 2012 is crucial for the country’s future. Hope people will use social to find the right candidates and causes to support
40. @Ponderful my #socialmediawish is that through #webcitygirls platform, I can continue spreading positive, educational & kind msgs
41. @ctiedje To help a non-profit grow.
42. @NataschaOS To be able to create real communities based on social media communities for the Hispanic population! #latism #WHenFL #parranda
43. @vicequeenmaria I want #heartcamp to be a great thing for the community.
44. And finally, my #SocialMediaWish: More people helping each other through social and using it for good.
    

    Did any of the social media wishes shared strike a nerve with you? Did you find any like-minded individuals to connect with in our post? What’s your social media wish for 2012? Please share it with me in the comments below or tweet us at @Radian6 with your social media wish and be sure to tag it #SocialMediaWish.

Before I came on-board at Radian6, I spearheaded a unique holiday campaign for eMail Our Military (eMOM) that used social media to support U.S. troops. eMOM’s “Holiday Love Project” had been using traditional methods like email marketing and radio advertising since its inception in 2001, but our organization didn’t exceed its campaign goals until we brought social media into the mix in 2008.

The Goals

The goals were lofty but we decided to go big or go home. We wanted to increase brand awareness, get registrations up and raise $2500.00 in sponsored care packages. As a small organization, eMOM had never aimed that high before, but we had a thriving online community so we gave it a shot!

Communication and Collaboration

How did social media make a difference? Social media gave eMOM the ability to have real-time communication with their community. As individuals and businesses showed their support, we were able to thank these sponsors immediately through our blog, Facebook page and Twitter account. We were able to discuss our daily progress, collaborate on ideas, bond with our community and share stories around our holiday campaign. It was an experience like no other we had before!

Crowd Sourcing

Social media also gave our organization the opportunity to receive instant feedback and a chance to implement change at will. For example, when our troop supporters wanted to know if their mail had made it to the office, or what our outgoing care packages to service members  would look like, we grabbed our digital cameras, snapped pictures and posted them to the eMOM Flickr account. In addition, we shared the photos and the stories that went along with them across our organization’s social media outposts. This gave our community a way to keep up with what we were doing as it was unfolding and what was going on behind the scenes in our office. Social media gave the eMOM community a way to share their thoughts and opinions on the campaign, directly and immediately with us and it made them feel like they were truly a part of our project. You can use crowd sourcing to tap into your community as well.

Community Sharing Power

eMOM made it easy for their community to come together and support their campaign. We created buttons and banners that could be shared on websites, blogs and across other social networks. We used widgets that could track the progress of our holiday campaign and we encouraged our community to grab the code and share it. For those who couldn’t contribute financially, we provided alternatives to give everyone a chance to participate in some way. Through social networks like Facebook and Twitter, we were able to connect with like-minded individuals and reach a broader audience. Social media helped us rally our troop supporters and create a buzz that had an amazing ripple effect.

Cost Effective

Like many grassroots, charitable organizations, eMOM was operating on a shoe-string budget. We also relied on a handful of unpaid, but very dedicated volunteers. Because of this, social media was a great option. It allowed us to launch our holiday campaign for a fraction of what it once cost, and harness the power of the social web. By adding social to our campaign, eMail Our Military was able to efficiently and cost-effectively exceed its project goals.

Learn more about making successful social campaigns in our latest eBook, “Four Steps to Integrating Social Media Into Successful Campaigns.”

Have you been a part of an organization that’s successfully implemented social media into its campaigns? Are you including social media as a part of your projects? Tweet us at @radian6 or leave a comment below.

Between now and Thursday, even before sitting down to a much anticipated and abundantly satisfying Thanksgiving dinner, we are all invited to use our favorite social media tool to tweet, blog, post a picture or video, to express our thanks and gratitude. It’s part of a 48-hour worldwide campaign called “Tweetsgiving 2009”. The idea is that if we think about what we are thankful for, it will also propel us to want to give.

The Tweetsgiving campaign last year fueled not only awareness for gratitude (for things as simple as chocolate and as cute as one’s puppy, to being thankful for parents and country), it also raised more than $10,000 US (the suggested donation of $10 netted a $30 average). The funds built a new classroom for an enthusiastic group of students in the Tanzanian village of Arusha. These kids barely have books (Gary Vaynerchuk has since sent his book “Crush It”) and now they’re connected to the world through the Internet – and they’ve been tweeting their thanks ever since. They’ve come to be affectionately known as the #TwitterKids!

The root of this campaign will make you believe that one individual can make a difference and perhaps remind us of the quote by Gandhi; “be the change you want to see in the world”. The story starts in Africa where one woman wanted to create a school so she saved her money from raising chickens to do it. She goes by the name “Mama Lucy” Kamptoni. Then one woman from the opposite side of the world called Stacey Monk, a management consultant on an extended trip, came to volunteer at Mama Lucy’s school. Later, when the school was at risk of being torn down by a developer, Stacey Monk quit her for-profit job and kicked her non-profit Epic Change into high gear. The school is now growing, as are the dreams of the students.

TweetsGiving is one of the early examples of engaging online communities for social good and is featured in numerous publications including Shel Israel’s book “Twitterville”. Epic Change simply saw it as the next evolution to using the phone, TV or door-to-door canvassing.

Radian6 is lending its support, as it did for the #beatcancer campaign, providing official social media monitoring or as Avi Kaplan, of Epic Change calls it, “gratitude-shared” monitoring. For Avi, that’s one thing that sets this campaign apart, is the focus on hope and gratitude rather than poverty. He believes it’s important to appreciate what we have and that “every expression of gratitude has the power to be transformative”. While every culture has its own way of expressing it, he says gratitude runs deep within the culture he witnessed among students and parents in Arusha. He hopes Tweetsgiving 2009 raises significantly more than last year and if so, the funds will build another classroom, a dormitory (orphanage), cafeteria and library. And if the campaign exceeds even those expectations, it will enable others, like Mama Lucy, to partner in new Epic Change initiatives. Avi has reason to be hopeful since momentum is already building and because this year’s campaign goes beyond connecting online communities. Live parties, university campus and city events are scheduled around the globe across six continents.

Gratitude could be the new currency for success. Scientific researchers are showing a link between gratitude and happiness and even improved performance at work; perhaps not unlike what philanthropist and investor John Templeton said, “to get joy, we must give it, and to keep joy, we must scatter it.” If this is possible, perhaps too is the goal of Epic Change, as it “seeks to change the world through the power of gratitude” – might we add –one tweet at a time! Happy Tweetsgiving!

If you hung out on Twitter or the blogosphere over the weekend, or if you happened to be at BlogWorld you undoubtedly heard some of the buzz around the #beatcancer campaign throughout social media. It was great fun, and Radian6 was glad to be part of such an amazing event and cause.

The upshot: folks across the social web tagged their Tweets, comments, blog posts and such with #beatcancer to raise awareness and money for cancer research during a 24-hour period that coincided with the BlogWorld Expo, one of the biggest social media events of the year.

In collaboration with EVERYWHERE, a social media marketing and content development firm, Radian6 helped provide the tracking and analytics for the #beatcancer campaign, which took place from October 16th at 9AM to October 17th at 9AM. Sponsors eBay/PayPal and MillerCoors Brewing Company donated money for each post tracked during the 24-hour window, and Guinness World Record recorded the campaign volume to set a new, sign-of-the-times record for the most widespread social network message in a 24-hour period with over 209,000 posts.

The best part? The event raised over $70,000 to benefit cancer charities.

The money raised will be donated to four different non-profit cancer organizations including SU2C (Stand UP to Cancer), Alex’s Lemonade, Bright Pink, and Spirit Jump. For more info on the campaign, check out beatcancereverywhere.com, or see the press release here.

At Radian6, we’re super excited about the increasing demonstrations of using social media for social good. The very nature of social networking – rapid connections, gathering among common interests, and the unlimited geography – make it a beautiful and powerful fit for social causes of all kinds. As a company, we believe very much in giving back to the communities and causes that power the human networks around us. Stay tuned to hear more about how we’re hoping to harness and support social causes like the #beatcancer campaign in the near future.

Special thanks to EVERYWHERE, WhatGives, Slash7, Sarah Evans, the team at BlogWorld & New Media Expo, Guinness World Records, eBay/PayPal, and the MillerCoors Brewing Company folks for putting together an exciting and noteworthy event, and for allowing us to be part of it.